Why I am running for city council: I am running for council to promote a long-term vision for Albany focused on environmental and economic sustainability. I want to strengthen efforts to protect our shoreline, creeks and open spaces. I want to maintain Albany's well-deserved reputation for its excellent schools. I want to strengthen our commercial areas by creating more pedestrian- and bike-friendly streets and neighborhoods. My vision for the Albany shoreline: I see the waterfront as an irreplaceable resource in an urban environment that is constantly under pressure from over-development. We should seek to maximize remaining large-scale open spaces and reinforce natural ecosystems, while ensuring that development is kept to a suitable scale and purpose. I have supported and participated in Albany's efforts to establish a community based, informed plan for the future of our waterfront. Our policy decisions regarding the waterfront require broad participation and a basis in sound facts and informed opinions. It's my expectation the visioning process will provide the community with enough understanding of the challenges and opportunities, the costs and the trade offs, for good collective decision making. I did not support the Magna/Caruso vision for redeveloping Golden Gate Fields. It was out-of-scale and out-of-touch with the needs of the community. It would have negatively impacted local retailers on our main commercial corridors. The project seemed oblivious to natural environment and included no serious consideration to ecological design suiting its location. | Key priorities: I would continue the effort to combat aerial pesticide spraying over Albany. I would maintain the initiative to complete of the Bay Trail network along the shoreline. I support implementing an integrated pest management plan. Proposed UC Village development and the Gill Tract: Albany would be better served to
engage the University more actively with regards the future of UC Village/Gill Tract
property as a whole. Albany residents have long expressed a desire to maintain the
Gill Tract property as open space would be used as an educational resource for sustainable agriculture and urban farming.
If these lands are developed in piecemeal, we may lose the opportunity to adequately protect and maintain it. We need to engage the University on a wider discussion of long-term planning goals involving the entire site and its relationship with the city. We should strengthen the vitality of local businesses and balance the new development with an approach that emphasizes pedestrian and bicycle access and a higher quality of design and construction. |
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Positions |